November 2014

Composition of the essential oils of three Cyperus species from Congo

Essential oils from underground parts of Cyperus articulatus (L.), Cyperus sp. and Kyllinga brevifolia (S.) were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Thirty four (34) components were identified in the oil of C. articulatus. The main components were α-cadinol (12.07%), trans-pinocarveol (9.86%), cyperenone (7.28%), cyperene (6.29%), myrtenol (5.50%), myrtenal (4.90%) and cis-carveol (4.42%)....

Author(s): Victor N’goka, Pierette Lokanga Tchiyamba and Flore Victoire Foungui Otoungou

November 2014

Genetic variability and divergence of seed traits and seed germination of five provenances of Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev

Establishment of Faidherbia albida trees on farm is often difficult despite the plant survival adaptive mechanisms such as drought and disease resistance. Adoption of the tree to agroforestry systems is also limited due to lack of knowledge on genetic variation of its provenances. Morphological charac-terization of F. albida provenances is therefore necessary to screen for natural genetic variation in seeds traits for...

Author(s): Grace Koech, Daniel Ofori, Anne W.T. Muigai, Martha Makobe, Muriuki, Jonathan, Mowo, G. Jeremias and Jamnadass, Ramni

November 2014

Advance research on Striga control: A review

The parasitic weed–(Striga spp.), is a major biotic constraint and a serious threat to subsistence cereal crop (sorghum, maize, pearl millet, finger millet and upland rice) production in sub-Saharan Africa. Severity of the parasitic weed in this area is aggravated by the inherent low soil fertility, recurrent drought and overall natural resource degradation. Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. and S. asiatica (L.)...

Author(s): Hayelom Berhe Teka

November 2014

Correlation and path coefficient analysis of seed yield and yield components in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) genotype in Ethiopia

Knowledge of correlation among different traits and further partitioning of the correlation coefficients into direct and indirect effects on yield is one of the approaches to understand the nature and extent of the relationship among characters. The objective of this study was to determine the degree of associations between seed yield and yield components of lentil. In this study, 228 genotypes from diversified origin...

Author(s): Fikru Mekonnen, Firew Mekbib, Shiv Kumar, Seid Ahmed and T. R. Sharma

November 2014

Observations on anatomical aspects of the fruit, leaf and stem tissues of four Citrullus spp.

Morphological characteristics of the fruit, stem and leaf tissues of four species of Citrullus (L.) Schrad. were examined using standard histological methods. Plant materials included the cultivated watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai) and three of its related species (Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad., Citrullus ecirrhosus Cogn. and Citrullus rehmii de Winter). Variation among the species was...

Author(s): Robert L. Jarret